You really owe it to yourself to give Old Town Bluffton’s Red Stripes Caribbean Cuisine & Lounge, owned by husband and wife team Ezron and Lakesha Daley, a try. With as broad and welcoming a smile as you’d expect from the owner of an upbeat Caribbean restaurant and lounge, Lakesha is the front-of-the-house force that segues from the bar/lounge section to the dining room serving up menus, drinks and plenty of information on what’s on the bill of fare, what it contains and how it’s cooked.

Despite Lakesha’s recommending Red Stripes’ curried goat (more on the goat later), we opted for curry shrimp and the night’s chicken special for the main meal, as well as plantain nachos and conch (pronounced ‘konk’) fritters for appetizers.

After close to a 20-minute wait after ordering, the appetizers emerged from the kitchen. There were fried oblong pieces of fresh plantains (plantains are like bananas, only more firm and less sweet) as a base for nicely grilled strips of onion and red and green sweet bell peppers — for the nachos — and two large deep-fried conch fritters, accompanied by a remoulade-like dipping sauce. Blanketed in melted cheddar cheese, the addition of well-seasoned jerk chicken (an option, along with pork or shrimp) to the nachos was zesty and substantially satisfying and well worth the wait. Had I not chose to share them with my dinner companion, I think I could have made a meal on the nachos alone.

The conch fritters, on the other hand, are another story and most of what we ordered was left uneaten. If you have relished conch (marine snails) fritters in the Bahamas, for instance, where they are appreciated as one of the most popular delicacies in all of the Caribbean, you already know how truly delectable they are if the batter used to make them is light and airy in contrast to the chewy (clam-like) texture of the conch. The conch fritters set before us were overly large and over-fried, with dough and conch that were too tough and spongy to be truly enjoyed. Not wishing to belabor the point, I’m going to chalk the fritters up to a bad night and give them another try soon.

Sometime later, came the main courses. Steaming hot, fragrant and lush with spices, the shrimp made with yellow curry were succulent and splendidly robust. They were lovely served with coconut-flavored rice and peas, and collards, chosen from among the restaurant’s list of other sides, which included, mac and cheese, fries, plantains, green beans and steamed cabbage. (I wanted to try the mac and cheese, but they were all out.) The only negative with this dish was the barely lukewarm temperature of the rice and peas, which somewhat frustrated the rice’s flavor and aroma from being fully realized. Seasoned with thyme, garlic, “all-purpose” chicken flavoring, salt and pepper, three pieces of spice-marinated, battered and deep-fried chicken (served with a sweet and sour sauce) comprised the chicken special, which came with the coconut rice and a side of cabbage slaw dressed with no more than a splash of vinegar. The chicken was extremely moist and packed with exciting flavor, but, again, the rice and peas were not hot, and if you prefer your coleslaw creamy, this coleslaw is not for you.

For dessert, two homemade offerings were available — a rich sweet potato bread pudding, vibrant in color, texture and the flavors of the season, as well as a bronze-colored “pudding,” dense enough to be served in slices and made with ingredients like white sweet potatoes, brown sugar, coconut milk, nutmeg and rum. As I was finishing dessert, the table next to ours was brought an order for curried goat. (It didn’t look like what I expected — heck, I don’t even know what I expected. I never ate goat before.) It smelled so good, in fact, that I decided I had try it and went back the next day to get an order of goat to go, thinking some things done for the first time just had to be done in private.) So, here I was — me and the goat, at home, at dining room table — my first opportunity ever to sample what statics say is the “most widely consumed meat in the world” — and it was delicious. Honestly, really delicious and fall off the bone tender, too.

The mac and cheese was very tasty, too, especially with its baked tomato sauce-based topping. And, there was plenty of it. In fact, all the portions are generous — especially in view of the restaurant’s reasonable prices. (The curried goat dish, with two ample-size sides, was only $9.95.) If you decide to dine at Red Stripes, and I hope you do, don’t be in a rush because their food is cooked to order. If you find the service slow, be patient and take notice of an establishment that relies on the efforts of a husband and wife team to keep things going — with a smile. When you enter Red Stripes, you’ll want to set your watch to Caribbean time. Relax, slow down and get in touch with your adventuresome side. And, by all means, try the curried goat.”